my life with knitting and other random adventures

Monthly Archives: August 2007

I’ve become addicted to knitting toys! I was a bleurgh day the other day (pms) and wanted a quick fun knit. I found Lola Bunny and fell in love. It is so cute. I have very nearly finished – should have an FO later tonight. I started it two nights ago. It is great. I am using the hand-dyed bfl I received in the hand-dyed yarn them swap. Its looking really sweet. I’ve found other great patterns, including some amigurumi patterns that have been converted into knitting patterns from this etsy store. I bought Mr Bean, Pirate Panda and This Little Pig. I plan on casting on Sheldon as soon as the bunny is finished. I have a couple of balls of Sugar n Cream (orange and denm blue) which will look great. I am also planning to knit a Baby Bobbi Bear and the small fish from the One Fish, Two Fish pattern from Blue Sky Alpacas, as well as Kate from knitty.com. The bunny is for Karl, and Sheldon will probably stay here too. I plan on giving the fish to my nephew for his birthday, but may make another bunny for him before that as I have a large stash of pale blue yarn. The yarn was bought to make him some clothes but know he is nearly a year I think the colour is a bit baby for him. The rest will be turned into squares to make blankets for the local animal shelter.

I managed to get some dyeing over the weekend – 400g merino sock yarn, 100g bfl laceweight and 100g bfl roving. 100g of sock yarn and the roving where dyed by Karl so will be special ltd editions. I hope to get the rest of the roving done this weekend and have the shop updated late next week. The BFL roving is so soft. I think it has to be one of my fave fibres. I hope to get some BFL sock yarn for the next update.

Off to eat dinner and finish the bunny, which Karl has called ‘Bob’. Everything is Bob at the moment.
(btw: for those unaware Karl is my 25 yr old boyfriend, but at times when I write/talk about him I realise it he sounds like he may be my 5 yr old son!)

This was my first attempt at spinning on my drop spindle. I think I’m getting the hang of it but its difficult to tell as I have no-one to tell me if I’m doing it right or getting what I should.
Either way I really like the colours of the roving I’m using (Hand-dyed corriedale in Pluto from Hello Yarn) and as long as I’m enjoying myself I don’t care.
I’m going to have another go tonight and hopefully get some consistency going. It is such great fun and I enjoyed it so much that i’m thinking of getting another drop spindle (or 2) and my parents are thinking about getting me a wheel for xmas.

I’m hoping to get some dyeing done over the weekend, I have 500g of BFL roving and 400g 100% merino sock yarn, as well as 100g BFL laceweight.

I am so tired I cna hardl believe it. I can’t rememebr the last time I was drained. I really didn;t think the hospital trip would take it out of me as much as it did. We didn’t even do that mcuh shopping, just popped in Lush and got and yarn from Robert Sayle (Sloane Square branch of John Lewsi). Mum got some Twilleys Freedom Spirit for a cardgian and I got some Rowan Pure Wool DK (in brown and turquoise) to make the Deep V Argyle Vest.

The verdict on the hospital is unknown. I am have to go back for more tests (a 24 hour BP monitor) and an MRI. I appears that my BP in my legs in really really low. I usually have high blood pressure and am on medication for it (my arm bp was about 137 over something, I know my botton BP is usually ok so don’t pay much attention to that. The BP in my legs was 66 and 73 over something. I’m no expert in normal BP ranges in legs but this does seem low (and ALOT different to the arm measurements). The Dr didn’t seem too bothered just asked me book the 24 test and an MRI, and make an appt to come back in 12 months. He said if the tests showed anything worrying they would contact me and get me to come back earlier.

When I’m more awake and with it I’m going to do some research on leg bp and what the normal ranges are etc. This is where I am glad I have access to medical journals etc through university and have a good knowledge of the humna body and medical terminology as it means I can go straight to primary research to look these things up and not have to work out which websites are crediable.

I will add links later as right now I’m off back to bed.

One last thing, I got am amazingly funny book yesterday called Blood, Sweat and Tea by Tom Reynolds. I is based on his blog. He is an EMT for the London Ambulance Service and this book looks at his working life and his feelings about it. I swear I laugh out loud ever other page.

Our rescue hamster Rufus passed away last night 😦 He took a turn for the worst yesterday afternoon, and was really weak and beginning to look poorly, we knew it was touch and go whether he would last the weekend and it appears he passed away in his sleep over night. We knew little of his history when we took him in but wanted to make up for the appalling treatment he had had from his previous owners. I like to think that he enjoyed his short time with us and it helped to make up for his mistreatment earlier on. This has in know way put us off adopting rescue hamsters, and I am glad that is was us that took him in and not a small child who’s first pet he may have been. Our only concern is that he had extremely bad diarrhoea yesterday and hamsters are prone to a condition called wet tail which is highly contagious (although only passed on through direct contact). We will be keeping a close eye on the others over the next few days as we had them all out in their balls on Friday.

On another sad note a friend of my mum’s passed away last night too, she had been suffering from cancer for a while but after her last course of chemo was told she had another few years left. She made it to her birthday (a few weeks ago) and then seemed to go down hill rapidly. I like to think that Rufus is somewhere with her keeping her company.

Recently many knitters have been complaining of startitis and the inability to settle on one project, this seems to have reached me now. I can’t seem to find a project that embraces me fully. I cast on the minisweater/boobholder and have been knitting on that fine hoping to wear it to London on Wednesday, but still don’t feel the love for the knitting, its all about the finished object. I’ve lost my sock mojo for the moment too. I’m trying to find a project that encompasses my attention fully and where the knitting is as important as the outcome. I also want to find an project that holds my attention and allows me to be fully immersed in it, to take to London on Wednesday. Last year I had a really really long wait to see the doctor at the hospital and I was wanting something that will allow me to immerse myself in knitting and a) make the time not seem so long and b) take my attention of the consult to come. I’m a pretty impatient person and get really antsy about waiting for things, which can’t be good the blood pressure, which is the main thing they test for when they see me. They take my blood pressure in both my arms and try to take it in both legs but this can prove a mammoth task. I have quite a large circumference around my thighs, they often have to connect two blood pressure cuffs together to get a reading and my calf are almost triangular, causing the top part of the cuff to inflate to a good pressure but the bottom part still to low in pressure but as they increase the pressure even more the cuff rips open. It is actually quite amusing to see how each different doctor tries to over come these hurdles every year without saying out right “I’m sorry Miss Copeman your legs are just too big”.

Susan from I’m knitting as fast as I can is having a 50% sale on her lace patterns for her birthday. I had two of the three so indulged and just got the third (Mountain Stream Scarf). I’m hoping that this small challenging project will be the perfect antidote to hours in the waiting room. Waiting to see the doctor can be stressful and emotional in many ways. There are always some very sick people there which would normally not upset me that much (i’m become accustomed to it through working in hospitals for 7+ years) but because I am there a patient and not a member of staff it has an effect on me. It can also be quite liberating in a way as it does make me realise how lucky I am; i lead a reasonably normal life and have never really had my heart condition stop me doing what I wanted (except getting a tattoo and several piercings, and with my phobia needles I doubt I would have had the courage anyway) and still doesn’t really. This mix of emotions, along with the stress of not knowing the consult (which is usually followed with great relief that all is fine, well, it had been for the past 3 years but only time will tell this year) makes this day tiring not only physically but also emotionally.

I have a busy day tomorrow get the yarn and roving purchased from the shop packaged up and then its off to the post office. I also have to order some more yarn blanks and plan the next dyeing session. I have already have some BFL roving coming but my keep some of that for myself as it is supposed to be a great learning fibre and I only have merino roving to go with my drop spindle. I will probably just get another 400g of both merino and wool/nylon sock yarn and dye up some different colours. Once I have a gallery of colours I will then be able to take custom orders, but for the time being I’ll just dye them and list them on etsy.

I’d better go I have a lace scarf to cast on and my fave program to watch.

I am a very happy girl today, not only did I make my first sale last night, but today I have been given the accolade of being the Etsy Seller of the Day on the Lime n Violet Daily Chum.

I think I spend the rest of the day doing the happy dance!

In knitting news I cast on the minisweater/boobholder by the wonderful Stephanie Japel last night, and although I’ve not knit that much am really liking how it looks. I am using some of the Rowan Cotton Rope I acquired from the John Lewis sale a while back. I’m hoping to get this finished in time for Wednesday when I go to London.

Appetizer
Describe your laundry routine. Do you have a certain day when you do it all, or do you just wash whatever you need for the next day?

Laundry? I am ashamed to admit that I do very little laundry (except hand washing my handknits) as Karl does it all.

Soup
In your opinion, what age will you be when you’ll consider yourself to truly be old?

This is tricky one, I don’t see my Mum as old yet and she’s in her 50’s so I suppose it would be older than that, I think age is more of a state of mind as opposed to a number.

Salad
What is one of your goals? Is it short-term, long-term, or both?

Short-term, I really want to learn to spin.

Long-term, would be to get my degree and get a job in medical microbiology

Main Course
Name something unbelievable you’ve seen or read lately.

I can’t say that I’ve seen or read anything unbelievable lately.

Dessert
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how happy are you today?

I’m pretty happy today, so about a 8.5. I’ve just listened to the wonderful Foo Fighters live on Radio 1, Karl has a long weekend off work, and after opening my etsy shop last night, I got an e-mail this morning saying my shop had been chosen for Etsy Seller of the Day on the Lime n Violet Daily Chum over the weekend.